The main focus in this coaching process was to allow participants to know each other. Even if some of them were colleagues for more then three years they didn’t know each other, they didn’t know how they like to work, how they prefer to communicate, what is important for them, what is bothering them. In addition, the department had 4 new members. The communication between them was strictly professional and only if there was the case. Otherwise they were communicating via email even if they were right next to each other. This approach made them feel that they are working individually, they are not part of the same team, and they do not have a commune objective. In this way, being focused only on individual objectives and those being different they getting to consider themselves competitors.
Only through a relationship coaching process they will be able to discover how to connect with each other in their own way not through a standard process delivered in a workshop, they will understand their fillings and they will be able to express them taking into account others personalities and desires. In the same time they will understand better they belong to a team not only on paper, but to a real one with common objectives and they can rely on each other and work together.
Coaching Project description – case study
The cruel clock of Monday mornings is like a slice of bread that always falls with the buttered side on the floor. But who has time to think about it? Mircea stops the alarm and thinks that he should be preparing for the board meeting.
He’s CFO at a leading company in the automotive industry, listed in Fortune 500.
He tucks his feet in the yellow-checked slippers and begins his morning, thinking that maybe the weekend was too short. On Saturday, he worked with his subordinate managers, finishing the budget for 2013. He had little time to spend with his 6 years old son Andrei, but at least it was fun.
On Sunday he overslept and then they all went to the supermarket. Sunday was a short day.
At the board meeting-taking place today, he will present a blueprint of the budget for the next 12 months, based both on the objectives of headquarters and on the information received from the sales department, customer service and logistics. The company wants to adapt to the economic context. In other words: do as many projects as possible, with the same resources.
The financial department is usually under pressure because the salesmen want to sell as much as possible in the peak of the business season, in order to meet their objectives and leave the terms of payment slip aside.
But no company can be profitable if its clients won’t pay in time or, even worse, keep postponing, while asking for more products. Mircea went through these tensions and he managed to build a good relationship with the sales manager, although this isn’t enough.
The 32-year-old CFO joined the company 7 years ago, as a junior accountant and advanced by going through all the positions he’s leading today.
He understands the tensions within his department, managing day-to-day conflicts. Truth be told, his biggest challenge isn’t dealing with figures, but dealing with people. He’s making efforts to train and keep them motivated to communicate with the internal clients from the sales department and customer service. He wants to turn the daily tensions between them into meetings that would lead to a better service, delivered to the external client, the so-called end-user.
Seven months ago, Mircea met with Raluca and talked about his department’s challenges, expressed his feels with regard to managing these conflicts and shared his wishes concerning his team’s performance. A modular project resulted from this meeting, and now Mircea can decide the right time for having a conversation inside his team, moderated by a team coaches (Raluca), regarding their context, plans and experiences.
FEEDBACK
Mircea:
Only this way we have the opportunity to get closer, express our problems and find solutions together.
We are like a well-greased engine. We learn from our experiences, we communicate better within our department and with the other teams. Moreover, we have the power to identify the wishes behind the dissatisfactions.
Florin:
It helped us increase our solidarity, the quality of our communication and sharing common values
and alignment. We now understand better the needs of the people around us and thus begin to create the
next steps not from our own needs, but from the perspective of the team’s objectives.
HOW IT WORKS:
Current Situation
Imagine a leading company, with a young team. I am talking about the famous Y generation.
Their problems range from lack of trust to avoiding responsibilities. Orientation is not always well done, part of the recruitment process is assuming that the candidate will immediate work at a reasonable level. Many of the candidates come from various backgrounds and work cultures, very hard to integrate at team level.
Their business leads to individual work. The team members pay attention to their own objectives, rather than the team’s goals. They avoid taking responsibility and pretend they do their job by only following their formal responsibilities and refuse to involve in other activities that arise. There are groups of influence and secrecy. The veterans still have a huge influence on the team and coldly accept new members. The “old’’versus “new” paradigme is often present and climate is tense.
Solution Proposed
The solution was to implement a relationship coaching program, based on eight 4-hour modules, during 6 months and focusing on: individual values versus team values; formal and informal roles within a team; common story; common goals; conflict management; engagement and impact.
Facilitation a team coaching process requires good understanding of individual coaching competences, combined with team dynamics and team agenda.
The journey starts always with an alliance and the existing level of awareness and module after module this increases together with solving current conflicts, based on opinions, values or personal stories. One area of focus is coaching the team relationship versus coaching the individual agendas.
The results occur in time with the increase gained in common understanding of every member perspective, however it is helpful to say that not all conflicts can be solved, many of them will be accepted as normal team life.
Through this program, they benefit from a series of valuable steps. They get to know each other (breaking communication obstacles) and reciprocal acceptance occurred. Also, they gained discipline inside team processes. They get a common understanding on the personal and team objectives. They understood why and how avoiding responsibilities affects the team and they discovered new ways of working as a team for a common goal. The conflicts decreased, the level of trust in them as team was much bigger and they acknowledged that team business goals must be put before the ego.
The young manager understood his new role and the importance of the alignment between team members and the team and himself. He started to have a coaching approach in his discussions. He established regular meetings with the team not only for the objectives but also for filling the spirit of the team and for encouraging the communication between its members.
Based on the rules and commitments established during the relationship coaching process he was able to better follow each person behavior and identify moments of tension.
The members themselves started to communicate and understand they work in the same team and they need to stay together in the relationship with the other departments.
Today situation
After 2 years the team is still in place with same manager which is now used with his role. Two new members joined the team. They were able to integrate them very well and in a short period of time. This in comparison with the times when new members were forced to struggle for each information they needed and nobody was willing to spend some time with them to explain how the procedures are working. Back then the communication was simple – nobody showed me how to do it so why should I do it for you?
In the company they are recognized like a team and they are continuing to keep the good habits they learned during the coaching process.